perceptual development

Question 1

how do we study perception

Answer 1

• controlled environments during development (Animals only)
• looking time:
  > preferential looking - tells if a baby can tell 2 items apart

Question 2

habituation paradigm

Answer 2

• show baby lots of cats
• then show a cat next to a dog
• if look at the new item (dog) for longer = they can tell them apart

can do this with different colours, faces, etc

Question 3

preferential looking

Answer 3

• reliable
• can reveal biases in infant visual system such as bias to high contrast images and specific stimuli
• on average infant looking time is very predictable

Question 4

infant preference

Answer 4

• prefer high contrast
• faces / things that resembles faces

Question 5

lights through to infants in utero

Answer 5

• shone bright lights into uterus of inverted or normal triangle of dots
• more preferences to the face resembling triangle - shows preference

Question 6

infant vision: visual acuity

Answer 6

visual acuity: level of detail and contrast visible

• contrast sensitivity function - how much contrast visible

> infants curve is radically different to adult

• visual system develops very quickly
• 6 months fully developed

Question 7

cataracts

Answer 7

• film covers eye and stop visual input
• in baby:
• cells still developing
• missing early window which is important for facial discrimination
• so if get them removed in time - vision recovers but facial perception works in a different way > harder to discrimination between layout of faces
• illustraes critical period within development: this effects the facial discrimination critical period

Question 8

infant vision: colour perception

Answer 8

• baby’s are morn with all 3 cones but they are immature
• parvocellular (midget): colour, high sf
  magnocellular (parasol): motion, luminance, low sf

before 3 months:

look longer at red light than blue light

look at blue and white light for the same amount of time

so they have the red-green, but not yet blue-yellow

3 months = now trichromatic, but need to see intense colours in order to see them

Question 9

colour discrimination

Answer 9

• easier to see most intense colours
• speckled layout of grates tells us where they begin to see them
• difference halves with age until teenage

Question 10

environmental factors shape colour perception

Answer 10

• if born above artic circle

winter = dark all day
summer = light all day

illumination they come across = very different artificial vs natural

when tested as adults colour discrimination abilities = very different

early experience = very important

Question 11

why does it matter

Answer 11

• impacts early years education e.g. reading picture books far away = can’t see and colours toys use
• plays for babies - what can they see
• theory and media - what is the best for your child

Question 12

preference triangle

Answer 12

• infants prefer arrangement that resembles the layout of a face
• makes sense evolutionarily
• familiar face, emotion, social cues

Question 13

recognition for familiar faces

Answer 13

• infants recognise specific faces from 4 days old (mother)
• but not when it is just the internal features - using the global shape of mother not just face > makes sense based on child’s vision
• need to have been exposed multi-modelling for this effect > more than just seeing, - smelling or talking etc

Question 14

discriminating between faces

Answer 14

• 6 month olds can discriminate between faces of other species, 9 month olds cannot
• but if trained to do so between 6 and 9 e.g. a book they can still do it

labelling = important

Question 15

perceptual narrowing

Answer 15

experience or lack of experience shapes expertise > use it or lose it

• applies to faces, colour and sounds